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HomeMy WebLinkAbout10-03-06 Minutes CRA � e Center of Good Z It ? COMMUNITY f3 REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY (CRA) BOARD MEETING Ocoee Commission Chambers 150 North Lakeshore Drive Ocoee, Florida October 3, 2006 MINUTES 6:00 p.m. CALL TO ORDER Mayor Vandergrift called the Community Redevelopment Area Board together at 6:00 p.m. in the Commission Chambers of City Hall. City Clerk Eikenberry called roll and declared a quorum present. Roll Call: Board Member Hood, Board Member C. Johnson, Board Member Anderson, Chairman Vandergrift, Board Member Keller, Board Member Corless and Board Member R. Johnson. Also Present: City Manager Frank, City Attorney Rosenthal, City Clerk Eikenberry, Assistant City Manager Croteau 11 , t !fp ralo ���� ��� :�`f6 a1!p?to� enEgi!C ysg € tx :91) h I ( 1 ,44)1 7 4 1 , 1 C 1 1 ' 6 i (Z11j4ev,4: Board Member Corless made a correction to the April 25, 2006, minutes with respect to her address. Board Member Corless, seconded by Board Member R. Johnson moved to approve the minutes of the CRA Board for April 25, 2006, and May 16, 2006, with the amendment as stated. Motion carried 7 -0. 2. Approval of the Interlocal Agreement between the City of Ocoee and the Ocoee Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) Assistant City Manager Croteau explained that the Interlocal Agreement before them is an agreement between the City of Ocoee and the Community Redevelopment Agency. This agreement allows for the City and City Staff to provide administration and day -to -day management for the CRA, provides for reimbursement to the City for costs incurred in administration of the CRA, and allows the City to be reimbursed by previous expenses in setting up the CRA. Those expenses through August 1, 2006, were $123,892 and they will be reimbursed at a later date. Board Member C. Johnson asked what the significance of the August 1, 2006 date? Assistant City Manager Croteau explained that all the calculations had to be done as of a specific time and they picked August 1, 2006, for the purpose of the agreement. Board Member C. Johnson, asked about Section 3.1.2, where it says "for the portion of such City Staff positions ", is it the intent that the staff documents what portion of their time was spent on CRA related matters and that is how the accounting will take place. Assistant City Manager Croteau said that is correct, for example, she has spent approximately 10% of her time and the Agreement allows for that to be calculated that way. She added that they will be asking for a position in the budget for next year to manage the CRA. Board Member Corless, asked for clarification on Page 2, Section 2.5, where it states "the City shall provide legal, engineering, and planning service to advise the CRA and to assist in the development of the plan," she asked if it should be the "development" or "implementation" of the plan. Assistant City Manager Croteau said that is a good point, they can change the language to say "development and implementation" because they will be using consultants for both. Board Member C. Johnson, asked for clarification on the basis for the $123,000 number. Assistant City Manager Croteau said they reviewed all costs incurred including the blight study, consulting costs in development of the Redevelopment Plan, and legal fees in setting up the CRA. Board Member C. Johnson asked, in terms of the overall process, is it the intent for costs incurred in the previous fiscal year to then be budgeted for the next fiscal year and then the CRA would pay for that during that subsequent fiscal year? Assistant City Manager Croteau said it allows them to bill quarterly for the cost. In the previous cost, the $123,000 will be repaid to the City at such time as the budget of the CRA allows. Next year there will not be any payment made on the previous cost, but the year after that we fully anticipate making some portion of that payable back to the City. Chairman Vandergrift said it is basically a loan from the City to the CRA for the initial set up, and then after that whatever occurs on a quarterly basis is billed on a quarterly basis. He added that it may be a good idea to itemize the fees; it is probably mostly attorney's fees. Board Member Corless, seconded by Board Member R. Johnson, moved to approve the Interlocal Agreement between the Community Redevelopment Agency and the City of Ocoee, with the amendment to the language in Section 2.5 which shall read "the City shall provide legal, engineering, and planning service to advise the CRA and to assist in the development and implementation of the plan," Motion carried 7 -0. Chairman Vandergrift added that his wife, who is an editor, pointed out some scrivener's errors where language needed to be gender neutral and where commas needed to be added to run -on sentences. He will give her suggestions to the staff. Any of those changes that may be made will not change the meaning of the document. [3. Approval of the By -Laws for the CRA Assistant City Manager Croteau explained the by -laws address the administration management of the CRA, outlines the roles of the different members /officers /employees of the CRA, it has some outline of how the meetings will be conducted and how they will be noticed. They are asking for approval of the By -Laws. Chairman Vandergrift stated that the same is true about scrivener's errors on this document also Board Member Corless asked about Article 3, Page 2, where it talks about the officers and employees, it talks about the Executive Director, whereas in the Interlocal Agreement it also speaks about the Manager; should they not also address the Manager in the By -laws, or are they just referring to the Manager because he /she has the right to employ. Assistant City Manager Croteau said because they have the right to employ they did not include the CRA manager as a separate item in the by -laws, however the CRA does have the authority to hire and they would be considered employees of the City of Ocoee. CRA Regular Meeting 10 -03 -06 Page 2 Board Member Hood, seconded by Board Member R. Johnson, moved to approve the CRA By -Laws. Motion carried 7 -0. 4. Budget a) Review of FY 2006/2007 Budget Assistant City Manager Croteau said a copy of the CRA budget was included in the Budget Books for the Public Hearings for the City of Ocoee Budget for FY06 /07. She said the numbers changed after Orange County recalculated the base year. It was originally set at $148,000,000 then changed to $157,000,000 which affects the amount of money we would get into the CRA next year. They were originally at $358,000, but the raising of the base year changes the increment and the funding down to $291,690 so that is the number they are working with for the budget. She said the Finance Department is continuing to work with them to find out where the difference came from. The budget is slightly different from what was presented before. They also asked for a part time position and have general operating expenses of $224,000. Included in that amount are contractual services which are about $150,000. They are looking at doing the State Road 50 Overlays, Transportation Master Planning, and Utilities Master Planning. Those things will actually be multi -year, the $150,000 will not cover those items; you will see that cost reoccurring again and again. Chairman Vandergrift said the City is still discussing the discrepancy with the county, because the tax roll included some property on Dean Road (outside the City limits). The City was told that even if there was an error that needed to be corrected, it would not get the additional money until next year. Assistant City Manager Croteau said when they tried to clear up the 10 million change in the value, the County sent some property id numbers that made up the discrepancy, and one of those properties identified was on Dean Road. They are still working with them to make sure they have the correct base year numbers. Board Member R. Johnson clarified that $53,000 was the salary for a half year? Assistant City Manager Croteau said that was originally meant for nine months, so they budgeted high until they know what the position will be doing which may include some economic development, etc. They will do some research on what these types of positions are paying, and will look at the market when they do go to hire. Board Member R. Johnson asked if the Board would be looking at the qualifications, etc. Ms. Croteau explained that the Executive Director hires the position according to the By Laws, which would be the City Manager. The CRA Board would set the salary at the time of the budget. Board Member Corless said . if you look at other budgets, CRA Directors and Managers statewide make around $75,000 - $120,000. Board Member Keller said if this position was intended for nine months, then the annual salary would be around $70,000. Board Member R. Johnson said he wants to see a salary range set. Board Member Anderson asked Community Development Director Wagner what the Pay Grade of his Planning Manager was, and shouldn't the CRA Manager be approximately the same. Community Development Director Wagner said no, he agrees with Ms. Corless that this is a specialized field and they come at a high price. Chairman Vandergrift said they need to see what other cities are doing because Winter Garden is using their CRA Director as a grant person. City Manager Frank said they are looking at roughly between a $60,000 $65,000 position. Assistant City Manager Croteau said they changed it to six months, rather than hiring for nine months because they do not think they will need to hire in January. Board Member R. Johnson said he just wants to see the results of the salary survey from around the state. Ms. Croteau said they have been tracking then to get comparative salaries and job descriptions. Mr. Johnson said CRA Regular Meeting 10 -03 -06 Page 3 they can also get information from the Florida League of Cities. Ms. Corless added that the Florida Redevelopment Association has done some salary surveys and job descriptions, so they could be another resource. Board Member Keller, seconded by Board Member Corless, moved to accept the CRA Budget for Fiscal Year 2007/2008 as presented. Discussion followed. Discussion occurred regarding the CRA Director position. Mayor Vandergrift stated that this job should be handled like other positions in the City where a Job Description is created with a salary range for review by the Board at the time they are ready to hire. Assistant City Manager Croteau made a point before it was approved that on Page 12 -1, the first page in the budget, they have listed the revenue description as property taxes, our consultant believes the proper terminology there should be "contributions." She said she will have the Finance Department verify, but wanted them to be aware that may change. After the discussion, the motion carried 7 - 0. b) Resolution adopting CRA Budget for FY 2006/2007 City Attorney Rosenthal read the title of the Resolution Board Member Keller, seconded by Board Member Anderson, moved to adopt CRA Resolution 2006 -001, adopting the Budget for FY 2006/2007. Motion carried 7 -0. Assistant City Manager Croteau said Community Development Director Wagner will be bringing back information later this month relating to Overlay Districts and possible Transportation Planning. Board Member R. Johnson asked if the Board will be determining who will be doing the Overlay District. Ms. Croteau said they will be doing that by bid, the By Laws allow them to use the City's purchasing procedure and they will bring the results of the bid back to the board. Community Development Director Wagner said they have an exciting project. Randy June is heading up a team of land owners around Lake Bennett and has hired Glading Jackson and Michael Morrissey Residential Design and other consultants to put together a mixed use urban village in that area. They had a half day design charrette on this, he is very impressed with their innovative approaches to transportation issues to make it a Multi Model Transportation District (MMTD) to help keep the load off of Highway 50 and reducing auto transportation. He said they will be working on the detail design and the overlay district simultaneously. He added that they will get back to them with a date as soon as possible. Ms. Corless added that is very exciting news because that is a target area that could change the overall function of the CRA. Board Member R. Johnson thanked Community Development Director Wagner for all of the efforts to keep pushing this forward. CRA Regular Meeting 10 -03 -06 Page 4 The meeting adjourned at 6:29 p.m. APPROVED: Attest: A �--- Bet ikenberry, Secretary ' S. Scott Vandergrift, Chair CRA Regular Meeting 10 -03 -06 Page 5